Time to get my hands a little dirty, so I decided to pick up some charcoal and oh yeah, did I make a mess or what – but it was a lot of fun drawing with this medium again!

Meadow Light (8×10), was drawn with charcoal and carbon on Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper. For this drawing I wanted to keep the meadow and background trees/shrubs soft, muted and non-reflective of the light, so both soft and hard charcoal were used for these two areas (and a lot of smudging). The foreground tree’s bark is quite rugged with deep ruts so a variety of carbon pencils were used allowing for the deepest darks to carry this massive structure. Other tools used were tortilums and a kneaded eraser.

The values were really important in this drawing, especially distinguishing both the foreground tree from the others. I can’t tell you how many times I stepped back to examine the progress, or how many pictures were taken – both helped me to analyze the work for perspective, values and other technical elements. I learned a lot from piece.

The light in this scene is what attracted me to draw it – perfect for getting a feel for charcoal again ~ click onto the image for a larger view.

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I love the movement in this piece, Mary. I’m feeling a breeze through the grasses there. Love the detail work and the tremendous range of values. So much light in this piece. Really beautiful job, my friend.

Thank you Marina – it was the best of scenes to work on and I loved each of the challenges that were presented. I missed charcoal, will stay with the medium for a while I think. Thank you again and I hope you have a wonderful Thursday evening my friend.

Thank you so much Gallivanta – the challenges are fun and help me move along in trying new things. Thank for you mentioning, I really appreciate your kind compliment. Was thinking about you with the recent earthquakes – hope all is well.

This is in a way a “very rich” work of art Mary, value wise, detail wise absolutely magnificent, fabulous, splendid. It makes me happy when I look at it, you put so much soul into it, it totally reflects back your disposition! Love the light sweep, it’s inviting and you brought it into not only your work but into our souls as well. Perfectly executed, glad you got down and dirty, I kinda missed this medium from you so this is a happy occasion to celebrate your “light”.

Thank you so much Eva – loved reading your thoughts on this scene. The charcoal handled the soft atmosphere I was looking for with morning light as it glanced over the tall grasses. I could feel what was happening, the energy of this scene the whole way through – you are really perspective on that one. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn with charcoal and it’s been a happy return.

I really like the full range of values, from blackest black to whitest white….especially sensitive are the tiny wisps of white on dark and dark on white in what seems to be grasses and bushes….a lovely piece, Mary.

Thank you so much Cynthia. Loved reading your reaction to the values, because it was like discovering the range of values all over again working with the charcoal. Carbon is so interesting to work with, while I have B, 2B, 4B and 6B – the pencils are all so dark it didn’t take much to develop the darks on the foreground tree. Thank you again – I really appreciate it!

Hi Resa, thank you – the light rays were the best aspect of the scene to create. Glad you enjoyed the drawing. I’m late catching up with everyone’s blog and looking forward to seeing the latest murals you’ve been finding – we’ve been working outside the last five days or so, time to see what everyone has been up to. Thanks again!

So cool Rhonda, thanks very much. It was great getting back to charcoal and this scene offered some really great elements to it – the light was interesting to develop, it seemed to take form all during the process and then at the end I took a good healthy swipe with the kneaded eraser for the rays blast. Thanks for always being encouraging and supportive!!

Hi Janet, thank you for your generous comment. I agree with you charcoal is an awesome medium to draw with – great loose strokes, lots of value range possibilities within a scene and you can nearly draw anything. Thanks again, I really appreciate your compliment.